Two Melbourne Brothers Charged Over 80Kg of Cocaine, Guns

The Australian Federal Police say the men have links to an international organised crime syndicate.

Two of the guns seized by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) during their raid on two Melbourne brothers who have been charged with a range of drug and firearm offences. Courtesy AFP and Australian Border Force (Courtesy of the ABF).

Australian Federal Police (AFP) have seized more than 80 kilograms of cocaine, a high-powered rifle, and two handguns from two brothers arrested during a surveillance operation in Melbourne.

Authorities allege the men have links to organised crime.

In early March, the AFP identified a so-called “rip crew”—a group of professionals hired by criminal syndicates to retrieve illegally imported drugs from high-security areas.

The crew was allegedly linked to the brothers and had intended to target a container being held at the Port of Melbourne.

Working with the Australian Border Force (ABF), the AFP identified the container and carried out an inspection, allegedly uncovering the cocaine and two GPS trackers hidden within a shipment of industrial machinery.

The drugs were removed and replaced with an inert substance before surveillance began on March 9.

Only a day later, officers observed two men, dressed in black clothes and balaclavas, allegedly breaking into the storage precinct with bolt cutters, retrieving the inert substance, and leaving in a car.

Some of the inert substance, swapped for cocaine by Police, seized during the raids. Courtesy of the AFP

On April 2, the AFP searched several properties in the Melbourne suburbs of Seabrook, Sunshine, Dallas, and West Melbourne and seized multiple mobile phones, blocks of the inert substance, a high-powered rifle, two pistols, ammunition, various quantities of drugs, drug paraphernalia, cash, and jewellery.

The older brother, aged 38, from Seabrook, has been charged with:

• Attempting to possess a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported controlled drug
• Possessing a trafficable quantity of firearms
• Possessing a controlled drug,
• Dealing in proceeds of crime worth $50,000 or more

He faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment if convicted.

The 32-year-old younger brother, from Sunshine, faces one charge of possessing a controlled drug, which could see him jailed for two years.

The cocaine had an estimated street value of about $32 million, with the potential to be broken down into 40,000 individual street deals had it reached the community.

The AFP says inquiries into the “rip crew” remain ongoing, and further arrests could be made.

Another of the guns found by AFP officers during the raid. Courtesy of the AFP

Authorities Warn of Organised Crime Activity

Detective Superintendent Simone Butcher said the result demonstrated the behaviour of criminal syndicates in the drug trafficking trade.

“The use of a rip crew by the syndicate demonstrates how criminals employ other criminals as part of a dark underworld of illicit enterprise,” she said.

“Trafficking cocaine and other illicit drugs destroys lives, damages communities and fuels violence.

“Criminals are indifferent to the harm they cause and will go to great lengths to fill their pockets.”

Border Force Superintendent Dan Peters said the ABF remained extremely alert to organized crime looking to circumnavigate Australia’s border controls.

“Criminal enterprises are known to utilise extensive networks whose reach extends on a large international scale,” he said.

“The unfortunate fact for these criminals is that beyond their own peripheries exists a far-reaching network of intelligence-sharing law enforcement agencies able to respond to such threats in a swift and decisive manner.”